


Living

by katdai



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Feels, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-03
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 07:19:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/783335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katdai/pseuds/katdai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is 13 when his mother dies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Stiles is 13 when his mother dies.

It's just after Thanksgiving and she only made it that far through pure bullheadedness.  The school tells him to take as much time as he needs and stay at home with his dad.  He's not sure why, his dad started drinking sometime between the viewing and the funeral and hasn't stopped yet.

He goes back to school after the 1st because even with his new stay-still-pills, he can sit on the stairs and watch his dad passed out on the couch for so long.  Scott, being Scott, is mostly confused about how he managed to miss so much school and just wants to talk about how his Dad has disappeared again, maybe this time for good.  Stiles doesn't choke up, just nods and says Mrs. McCall will be better off without him. He comes home and does his homework and then does some more research about random things because he can actually concentrate for 10 minutes in a row now.  He starts with cancer and goes from there because maybe, just maybe, if he knew more he could have caught it a little earlier, done something, anything, and his Mom. . .

He eats takeout or reheated casseroles at the kitchen table every night and washes his dishes afterwards and sometimes his Dad will stumble in and eat a bite or two before making his way back into the bottle.  When he gets tired of such high class cuisine, he takes his father's wallet and directions from the Internet and teaches himself how to make all the things in his mother's cookbook.  It's not the same, but it's a start.

When Deputy Bryant stops by the house to see when the Sheriff was thinking about coming back to work, Stiles just pours out all the bottles and bundles his Dad out the door with one of the healthy lunches his doctor said he should eat.  And when his dad works through Mothers' Day (spent at his Mom's grave) and Fathers' Day (spent listening to Scott bitch about his sperm donor), and right around through Thanksgiving and Christmas, he doesn't say anything; he just substitutes a turkey burger and box stuffing for the normal five-course feast.

And it works.  Not well, and it's probably not healthy, but they're surviving and his dad drinks less when he has to work the next day and Stiles has so much free time he even signed up for a couple of classes at Beacon Hills Community College and life goes on.

So when Stiles pulls Scott out into the forest looking for (half of!) a dead body and Scott manages to get bitten by a werewolf (a werewolf of all things), Stiles knows how to adapt and keep on moving.  He researched werewolves and myths and wolves (which was actually the most helpful) and then sets to work teach Scott how to survive as well.And when Derek Hale shows up at his window wanting his help and a pack and maybe, maybe something more . . . and Stiles?

Stiles starts living.

 


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its two months after his 18th birthday when his Dad finds out.

It's two months after his 18th birthday when his Dad finds out.

Stiles is making dinner when his Dad wanders in and sits heavily at the table. He watches Stiles dice onions for the potato salad and waits silently until he's ready to move on to the celery. "How long have you been seeing Derek Hale?" he says out of nowhere.

"For what definition of seeing?" Stiles wants to babble all things going on in his life, but holds back. He's thought about this day for the past two months, the past two years, ever since Scott got bit. If he's deathly honest with himself, this has been coming since his Mom died, it just changes form with every milestone in his life.

"Semantics, Stiles! I ask you what my underaged son is doing with a man 6 years his senior and you want to argue semantics!?" his Dad yells, standing so abruptly the chair falls over. Perhaps babbling would have been the better option. Stiles has never seen his Dad this enraged. Disappointed, yes, but never straight up mad and hurt and perhaps slightly confused, like how this could even had been going on and he, the Sheriff, didn't know. Stiles would be worried, but he's played this conversation over so many times in his head, gone down all the routes with Derek, thought of basically nothing else in the recent past. He knows how this is going to go, and it's just going to get worse from here.

"I've been 18 for 63 days," Stiles says quietly and watches his Dad draw in a breath, pause, and all the fight drain right out of him. He had suspected it ever since his mother died and they stopped celebrating, but to have ironclad proof that his Dad actually forgot his birthday saddens Stiles more than he thought it would.

"Jesus, Stiles." His Dad bends down to right the chair, mostly Stiles imagines, to avoid looking at him for a moment. He settles heavily, like the world has just been pulled out from under him. Stiles figures it has. He's not sure his Dad's heart is strong enough to take this, but it has to be done, and Stiles can only gather his courage so many times.

"I've know Derek for 2 years," Stiles starts, mixing the mustard into the mayonnaise. He thinks back to that time, when he wasn't sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, just that he had to protect Scott, and Derek sure wasn't on board with that plan. He's still uncertain about who wears the white hat, but he's fine with the us against them mentality these days. It took a while to trust Derek and even longer for Derek to trust him back and perhaps their relationship is stronger for all the trials they went through back in the very beginning.

"We've been dating for the past 8 months," he continues, mixing the dressing with the potatoes and other bits. He remembers the day he finally sat on Derek and made him use his words. Litterally sat. Derek won't move if he thinks he'll harm Stiles by doing it. They had talked about everything. How young Stiles was. How old Derek was. All the responsibilities Derek had to the pack. All the roles Stiles was already fulfilling for the pack. How neither of them would be able to back out of this kind of relationship. All the danger Stiles would be in if it happened. All the danger Stiles would be in anyway. All the things they stood to lose. All the things they could gain. How Derek was damaged goods and Kate had ruined him, twisted him up inside, until he wasn't fit to force that on anyone, couldn't make anyone live with such a vile, decrepit thing.

How Stiles knew all that and loved him anyway, loved him and always would, no matter the outcome.

He'd have to have that converstaion with his Dad too, but not today.

Silence reigned in the kitchen. Laundry had been done. Stiles had placed the paid bills in the office. The dishes sat drying on the rack. Stiles put the lid on the bowl of finished potato salad and slid it in the fridge next to his Dad's meals for the week. As long as his Dad didn't change the locks, he'd be back next Tuesday to do it all again. He turned to leave, hoping his Dad would say something, anything at all, but stopped at the door when he didn't. He hoped it didn't end like this, but he had to put it out there, had to let his Dad know just how much he had missed.

"And for the past 6 weeks, I've been living with him," he finished as he shut the door and returned home, to Derek.

**Author's Note:**

> Because I somehow managed to pick up four new fandoms in a month, I just had to write something.


End file.
